"Connecting with Young Minds" !

I did promise to reveal our Deputy Minister of Entrepreneurship, Dato' Saifuddin's own personal activity as we run up to "the Week".

Well, here it is !

The Program is called - Connecting with Young Minds !

We created it on the fly - last Thursday. Dato Saifuddin was excited when he heard the idea and said "let's do it" !

The idea is for about a dozen school children below the age of 15 to spend a day with a member of Cabinet in close proximity and for the Minister to explain in layman's terms what he is doing.

As someone once said " if you are not able to explain to your kids what it is that you do, you probably don't know it yourself". This was the inspiration of the Connecting with Young Minds Program.

It is truly connecting ! Minister's meet many people every day. But how many times do they spend a whole day under the watchful eye of kids? And what kind of impact will this have on the young minds? How does a child see the "one day in the life of the Minister"?

So, this program came out of this questions and discussions with Dato Saifuddin during the press brief last week and when we got his nod, we were excited to make it happen.

For the first "unplanned" program, we got 12 kids at random- 9 from the Putrajaya school and 3 from the Tanarata International School. Dato's team was swift in helping with the processes - permission from the Ministry of Education, the Schools and finally the parents.

The day began at 8am. The kids met Dato' at his house for breakfast. Ice breaking and getting to know each other. They then followed him to the office for a briefing, then off they went to the Parliament and lunch at the Parliament. After that they were given a glimpse of the Minister's meetings and finally they joined him at the Mara building for a dialogue with other entrepreneurs .

In fact during the bus journey, these folks did not sit still. Dato was interviewed and "grilled" on various matters - what are his ambitions, how does he spend time with his kids and more..

Dato's too was a willing participant and a gracious host.

At the end of the program, Dato knew everyone by name and they too were relaxed in his company .

The day closed with the students, divided into groups sharing the 5 things they learnt on that day, their view of the Minister and their own ambitions. They Minister then gave them all some notebooks from MeCD as a token of appreciation.

The kids presented him with a plaque - handwritten on their wishes and whatever came to their minds.

All in all the kids tell me they had a blast of a time ! Dato was all smiles and said, the program should continue with kids connecting with not only Ministers but also other business leaders and entrepreneurs and professionals.

We thank Skybus for their sponsorship of their bus for the travel. WG helped with the coordination. Dato's team was super fast with everything to make this program happen. And finally - Dato himself was amazing to say the least.

One kid told me - "wow ! He is hard working, but takes it all with a broad smile"..something to learn from, I guess.

Thank you Dato, MeCD and all parties for making this activity happen in conjunction of the Global Entrepreneurship Week !

I hope this program continues with more kids meeting their leaders !

Cheers